Stafford Floor Sanding Case study

Stafford Floor Sanding Case Study

This Stafford floor sanding job proved to be a challenge. While at the quotation stage of this job I notified the customer that there may be water stains in the kitchen area. There had also been ceramic tiles stuck to the floorboards without an underlay. This has therefore allowed moisture to penetrate between the tiles and then into the floor. This type of water stain is generally always a problem. Besides darkening floors, it also leaves a criss-cross pattern of water stain. It sometimes penetrates deep into the timber.

Sanding Stage

It was the same throughout the rest of the floors. Some form of sealer coating was present under the tiles. Furthermore there were also hundreds of underlay staples from a previous floor covering present. Someone had just hammered them flat before laying the ceramic tiles. Sanding timber floors in this condition requires the right prep work.

Floor Stains are Revealed

While starting the floor I realised that severe water stains were also present on the rest of the floors. It seems like this Stafford floor sanding job was not looking very promising. Then I notified the customer of my findings and in addition, offered the option to stop at this point and at no charge to them. I said there was a chance perhaps the stains may lighten. I also said if we continued there is no guarantee the stains would sand out at all. They wanted to proceed and wanted to take the gamble.

Hundreds of Staples

The underlay staples caused the next problem. Since someone hit them down flat, I had to punch them into the floor rather than pulling them out. As a result, this caused many pieces of timber to split and break out. Fixing those pieces back into the floor with colour matched filler was the remedy.

The End Result

Finally, after many sands later the floor was 95% water stain free. I wanted this Stafford floor sanding job to look its best, and I reached that goal. The owners wanted the natural look of the timber. We used a low sheen coating to get that look. In conclusion, they were ecstatic with the results, and so were we.